The 30 Most Overrated Movies of All-Time

1) Saturday Night Fever (1977)  Classic case of a movie where the soundtrack is infinitely better than the film it came from—Vision Quest, Detroit Rock City, F.M., and Cocktail are other good examples of this phenomenon.  SNF is an incredibly average movie, apart from the dance floor scenes, which are fairly impressive.  Sadly, the storyline is pretty mundane, most of the characters aren’t terribly likeable, and I can only take so much of high-strung Italians sniping at each other over little shit at the dinner table…
2) Nashville (1976)  I’d always heard lots of good things about this film, so when I sat down to watch it about a year ago, I was majorly disappointed.  Aimless plot, bizarre characters and this old fart redneck pseudo-narrator droning on throughout the film. Robert Altman may well be the most overrated director of all-time, too.  The only saving grace of this film was seeing all the old ‘70s cars and fashions, but overall, Nashville left me scratching my head…
3) Flashdance (1983)  Overrated movie that spawned an equally-overrated fashion fad—dancewear in the form of oversized torn sweatshirts that were about as sexy as today‘s sports bras.  Not unlike Saturday Night Fever, watching this one again 20-some-odd years later makes one ask, “What was the big deal in the first place?”  Even Jennifer Beals’ taking-off-the-bra-under-her-shirt bit is pretty underwhelming.
4) M*A*S*H (1970)  Perhaps I’m a bit prejudiced by years of watching the TV series, but I have never liked this film—if you’ll pardon the pun, it’s just a big mish-mash to me!  No real storyline to speak of, and Robert Altman had this irritating habit of having multiple people speaking dialogue over each other at the same time—it’s even hard to follow on DVD with the subtitles turned on!  It also didn’t help that they staged that hokey football game wearing late-1960’s helmets and uniforms in what was supposed to be 1952 South Korea.  Very lame.
5) Rocky Horror Picture Show (1973)  When I first rented the video for this one back in the mid-‘90s, I was excited to see what all the fuss was about, but it turned out to be a huge letdown.  Rocky Snorer Picture Show is more accurate!  I guess this is one of those you-had-to-be-there-at-the-time kind of things to understand all the hoopla surrounding it back in the day.
6) Pretty Woman (1990)  Man, was this one overrated in EVERY possible way!  Richard Gere and Julia Roberts are two of the most overrated actors of all-time, both in terms of their looks and acting ability (especially Roberts), and this movie didn’t honk my hooter at all.  In the words of the Wayans Brothers’ “Men on Film”:  “HATED it!”
7) Grease (1978)  I love Olivia Newton-John to death—I lusted after her mightily back in the ‘70s—but I can’t stand this film. I’m not real big on musicals in the first place, but this one is so hokey and cornball, and having John Revolting as the lead didn’t help matters any.  Travolta is to singing what Ted Baxter was to newscasting, especially on “Summer Nights”, and that “tell me more, tell me more” chorus grates on me like Joan Rivers!  The ‘50s weren’t as fabulous as they were cracked up to be, either.  I’ll take ONJ in Xanadu over this corny thing any day…
8) Caddyshack (1978)  Apart from Bill Murray’s bits—which truly WERE funny—and a couple good lines from Rodney Dangerfield, this movie was a very unfunny bore!  While I do admit to never caring much for Chevy Chase in the first place, I’ve never understood why Caddyshack is held in such high esteem and put in the same league with classics like Animal House and American Graffiti.
9) Pulp Fiction (1994)  I’ve watched this thing at least ten times, and I still don’t quite get the point of it all, other than what I already knew—drugs are bad, mmm-kay?  It also was hard for me to take Samuel L. Jackson’s character seriously—that afro wig kept reminding me of late ventriloquist Willie Tyler’s dummy Lester!  Decent soundtrack, though.  By the way, do you see a trend, here?  This is the third John Travolta film to make this list, although he was almost tolerable in this one.  Almost…
10) The Last Picture Show (1971)  I just watched this one last week, and boy was I unimpressed!  This one got a bunch of Oscar nominations, and I’m clueless as to why.  Just a bunch of hick people in a hick town in Texas in the ‘50s that didn’t know what to do with themselves.  It wasn’t even worth sitting through to watch Cybill Shepherd take her clothes off on the diving board!
11) The Aviator (2004)  This damn thing was about an hour too long, for starters, and it seems to me that a guy whose life story was as quirky and weird as Howard Hughes' could sustain one’s interest throughout a whole movie, but not the way they told it here.  Aviator got a boatload of Oscar nods that it didn’t deserve, too.
12) Lost In Translation (2003)  I’m still trying to figure out what got the Oscar people all worked-up about this movie!  Nothing against Bill Murray, but what was so special about his performance here?  What was so special about the movie, period?  Apart from the beautiful scenic views of downtown Tokyo, and the rather humorous scene with Murray in the swimming pool with the geriatric water aerobics group, this movie was a total dud.
13) Borat (2006)  Please see my prior post from January 3 for my little dissertation on this one…I’m too fucking tired to type it all over again!
14) ANY Woody Allen Movie  Normally, I don’t like to use a blanket entry like this, but in the Wood Man’s case, I think it’s totally appropriate.  This guy’s movies are all the same—he always plays the same sorry-ass hang-dog character, and almost always casts the equally-overrated Diane Keaton, yet the critics go ape-shit over his flicks every damn time.
15) Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1978)  The hoopla that surrounded this one when it first came out rivaled that of Star Wars, but the movie itself sure as hell didn’t. Zzzzzz…
16) Melvin And Howard (1980)  I hate to pick on this one because I really like Paul LeMat (he was John Milner driving the yellow car in American Graffiti), but this one wasn’t the laugh riot I was expecting and was pretty dull overall.  Interesting piece of casting, though: Mary Steenburgen playing a stripper!  Huh?!?
17) Shampoo (1972)  Coulda used some mousse and conditioner too!  I put Warren Beatty in the same category as Richard Gere—overrated pretty boy…
18) The Buddy Holly Story (1978)  ‘A’ for effort on the part of the very stocky Gary Busey for making a convincing-looking Buddy Holly—who in real life was thinner than Ron Howard’s hair—but the film itself took way too many detours around the facts for my liking.  Hell, they even reduced The Crickets from a four-piece band to a three-piece, and changed the names of the guys in the band to avoid lawsuits.  Someone should have also told the director that there ain’t any mountains anywhere near Lubbock, Texas!
19) Moonstruck (1987)  More hyper-tense Italians sniping at each other over little shit.  Nicholas Cage was in this one too, which is rarely helpful.  And Cher’s “Italian” accent was about as convincing as that of Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County, which was, in turn, about as convincing as Mr. Tudball’s toupee on the “Carol Burnett Show”!  Yet, Cher got a Best Actress Oscar anyway.  Figures…
20) Ordinary People (1978)  Should’ve been called Ordinary Movie!  This one got a bunch of Oscar nods too, for no particular reason.  It wasn’t that bad of a movie, really—it was just, well, ordinary!
21) The Matrix (1999)  I realize you have to suspend your disbelief a bit more when it comes to futuristic Sci-Fi flicks, but I found that difficult with this one, especially because it seemed to focus solely on impressing me with all its special effects eye candy instead of a plausible story.
22) Sideways (2004)  Can someone please explain why this yap-fest was so highly-regarded?  I finally gave up on the damn thing about two-thirds of the way through it because I couldn’t take any more of the constant dialogue amongst the two boring main characters.  Freakin' C-SPAN is more lively than this crap was!
23) The Pope Of Greenwich Village (1984)  Dumbass character played by Eric Roberts gets involved up to his eyelids with the Mafia and yet has the nerve to act surprised when some thug cuts off his thumb when he fails to pay them back their money.  “Deyyyy took my thuuuummb, CHAWWWW-LIEEE!!!!” he exclaims to his brother.  Roberts pulls off the New Yawk accent about as well as I do, too…
24) Apocalypse Now (1979)  Easily the most-overrated of all the Vietnam movies so far, especially Marlon Brando’s performance.  Tell me please, why did/does that fucker rate such high praise for merely mumbling?  Damn movie was about an hour and a half too long, too…
25) This Is Spinal Tap (1984)  This one certainly has its moments, especially early on, like the Stonehenge stage bit and songs like “Hell Hole” and “Big Bottom”, but the longer the movie goes on, the more boring it gets, and you remember that you’re watching actors in bad wigs instead of a fictional Heavy Metal band.
26) Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961)  Never have understood the appeal of this movie, even though Audrey Hepburn was a doll.  I think maybe it’s because flighty characters like Holly Golightly rarely appeal to me.
27) Last Tango In Paris (1972)  Ol’ Marlo Brandon (as A. Bunker called him) strikes again!  I liked Brando in The Godfather and On The Waterfront, but beyond those two, I just don’t get what the big deal is about him.  This movie sucked, big time!
28) Dog Day Afternoon (1975)  Overblown Al Pacino yawner.  He’s a bank robber, yet we’re supposed to feel empathy for him?  That’s like rooting for the shark in Jaws.  Come to think of it, I actually did root for the shark in Jaws The Revenge, because it was so bad and Lorraine Gary is so ugly!  As for Dog Day, it was all bark and no bite.  Sorry...
29) Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)  This movie came out when sex farces were en vogue in the late ‘60s, but this one was hardly arousing, partly because such dullards as Elliott Gould and Robert Culp were in it...
30) V For Vendetta (2005)  This futuristic tale of a totalitarian state was hyped as another Matrix when it came out, but Natalie Portman wound up having her head shaved for nothing, because this flick was a total snoozer!  At least she made a really cute bald chick…